WWCD? (WHAT WILL CASTLE DO?)

By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer

There were signs Monday about what Mike Castle was
doing.

Alas and alack, they were only directional signs,
arrows affixed to his familiar, green and blue "Castle
for Congress" yard signs. They were placed along
roadways to point the route to his 10th annual golf
outing and political fund-raiser at Biderman Golf Club
in Chateau Country.

People who were there paid good money -- $1,000 an
individual, $5,000 a foursome -- without getting so much
as a hint from Castle, who is Delaware's leading
Republican, about his plans for 2010, when he could run
for the Senate or for re-election or retire.

It was more of the same of what he has been giving
away for free, which is to say, nothing. In that case,
at least people got what they paid for.

Castle played coy better than he played golf.

"The congressman's game was not as good as his
wife's, which provided us no clarity, although his golf
game shows he's been out politicking, not thinking about
retiring," quipped Bob Perkins, who was the chief of
staff for Castle after his election as governor in 1984.

Perkins played golf with Jane Castle in one of 17 or
18 foursomes padding Mike Castle's campaign treasury,
reported at $840,000 at the end of the first quarter,
the most of any statewide officeholder.

Castle suggested in April he would decide on his
future in a month or two, but it is not exactly a
surprise the forecast is still murky. Castle has been
known to approach commitment as though it might have
cooties.

He did not marry until his last year as governor in
1992, when he was 52. He had filing papers prepared for
both the House of Representatives and the Senate in
1994, when he considered challenging Sen. Bill Roth in a
Republican primary, only to go with the default option
for re-election just 61 minutes before the deadline.

Inquiring political minds want to know what Castle
will do. "It is the question," said Mike
Ratchford, who was a secretary of state during Castle's
administration.

Whatever Castle does, it will define the next
campaign season.

The Republicans need Castle to run for something,
anything, or the Democrats could be looking at a
dream-come-true election. The Senate seat could devolve
like a royal line of succession from Joe Biden to the
regency of Ted Kaufman to Beau Biden, and the House seat
could go to John Carney, the ex-lieutenant governor.

Although Castle himself has said he is more inclined,
if he runs, to go for the Senate than for a 10th term in
the House, he is getting the hard sell both ways.

Senate Republicans have been calling. House
Republicans recently tried to entice him to stay by
offering to make him the ranking minority member on the
Education & Labor Committee. He turned it down, although
truth be told, it really was not much of an incentive.

Becoming the ranking member is like getting the front
seat on the bus while the chair gets the keys to the
Bentley.

Castle certainly is not acting as if he expected to
retire, even if he is turning 70 in two weeks. Not only
is he collecting campaign contributions, but he is
exhibiting definite candidate-like behavior, as recently
as Saturday.

Castle marched in the Separation Day parade in New
Castle, this after a root canal in the morning.

"He's either running for office or trying to squeeze
every last second out of his congressional term," joked
Tom Ross, the Republican state chair.

From the dentist's chair to a Senate seat? It sounds
like the aim of someone still willing to give his
eyeteeth for politics.